Getting a little deeper into the synth and I’ll start with the caveat that I will probably keep veering off and comparing X with the original as, without doubt, that is what some people will want to read. (But it sadly makes the original look even more dated, though – sooo 2007.) Massive – not Massive This pared-down philosophy has certainly given the synth a much more appealing look that puts it right back up there as a 2020s soft synth. Massive X seems to be about simplifying the top layer – what you see and how you interact with it – but adding more should you need it, which is fine in my book. There’s also a stack of extra wavetables to choose from and more Wavetable Modes (essentially, how they are played). Massive X features two oscillators compared to Massive’s three, but actually has access to three more, via insert effects. Specs-wise, you might start by thinking that Massive X loses some of the features that Massive has – but you would be wrong. You get the huge sonic results, but the feature and cosmetic similarities aren’t exactly, er, massive.Īs we’ll see, though, there are certain Massive characteristics that have been carried through. In fact, on initial boot up, you might think Massive X is a completely different synth. Massive is still for sale, and there’s no cross-compatibility between the two. MainĪnd ‘successor’ is just how Native Instruments is pitching Massive X, although slightly confusingly, the two will coexist alongside one another, at least for the foreseeable. This year alone has seen some incredible releases and I’ve reviewed some stunning synths from Arturia (Pigments), Audiaire (Zone) and Softube (Parallels) that have refined the very way you interact with your software, so the successor to Massive, on test here, is long overdue.

However, 12 years is a long time in anyone’s books – let alone software – and Massive has been overtaken in certain areas by other titles.

It’s been as influential as any other synth before or since, so much so that you’ll still find it – alongside those previous synths I mentioned – as main recommendations across many dance forums.

Its then-slick three oscillator wavetable engine and ground-breaking modulation features helped it to massively (sorry) contribute to various dance sub genres, even arguably helping to invent a few along the way.

When it was released over a dozen years ago, NI’s Massive shook up the market in a way that even the Berlin developer couldn’t have predicted.

Massive native instruments midi